10. Woolf-To The Lighthouse PDF

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Vi r gi ni aWool f ’ sTot heLi g ht hous e Extended Synopsis: Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, in its simplest narrative form, follows the story of one family (the Ramsays) and their guests over a period of ten years. The Ramsays own a house on a coastline and reside there during the summer months, along with several guests to whom they rent rooms. Mr. and Mrs. Ramsay have eight children spanning several years, although most were born right after the previous. The following paragraphs provide brief plot summaries for each section of To the Lighthouse: “The Window:” The novel begins with Mrs. Ramsay reassuring her son, James, that they will visit the lighthouse the next day. Mr. Ramsay, however, disagrees with his wife, which makes James quite angry with his father, to the point where he would kill the man. He resents his father for always taking his mother away from him and believes that his father hates him and his siblings. At this point, the various guests of the Ramsays come into play: Charles Tansley is a scholar who greatly admires the philosophical work of Mr. Ramsay. Lily Briscoe is a young painter who visits the Ramsays and is in the process of painting a portrait of Mrs. Ramsay. William Bankes is a family friend whom Mrs. Ramsay encourages to marry Lily. Other guests include: Paul Rayley and Minta Doyle (a marriage Mrs. Ramsay successfully arranges), and Augustus Carmichael, a poet. The afternoon is spent in various scenes, none of which are terribly memorable: Paul proposes to Minta, and Lily continues to paint the portrait, always thinking that something is wrong or missing in the layout. Mr. Ramsay contemplates his philosophical theory (as his son Andrew describes, Ramsay is a specialist in “subject and object and the nature of reality” [27[. As an example, he tells Lily to “Think of a kitchen table…when you’re not there” which causes her to see a beautifully detailed upside-down kitchen table in a detailed tree [27].). Ramsay characterizes all of human thought and philosophy into the alphabet and claims he has already reached Q, however, R is elusive and Z he can only hope to grasp. The evening centers around Mrs. Ramsay’s amazing dinner party, which is the highlight of “The Window.” Mrs. Ramsay’s plans appear to fall apart: Minta and Paul are late, some of the children are not ready, Augustus Carmichael asks for more soup; eventually, things begin to settle down, and once the sun sets and the candles lit, a sense of peace and unity is achieved. At this precise moment, all the guests at the table feel connected to one another as they look at the plate of fruit in the center. Lily realizes that she must move the tree in her painting to make it perfect. Yet this harmony does not last as the guests begin to leave, and Mrs. Ramsay feels proud that she was able to enjoy the moment before it slips into the past. As the various couples leave and the children go to sleep, Mrs. Ramsay joins her husband in the parlor where she reads for a few moments. Mr. Ramsay interrupts her, however, and asks if she loves him. Not being accustomed to outward declarations of love, Mrs. Ramsay instead agrees with him that the seas will be too rough to visit the lighthouse the next day. “Time Passes:” Night falls and all the characters melt into the darkness. Time begins to pass more quickly as the reader becomes unaware of the various actions. A

series of actions occur, all of which are presented in brackets: Mr. Carmichael shuts off the light after reading Virgil; Mrs. Ramsay dies in the middle of the night; Prue (one of the daughters) is married; Prue then dies during childbirth; Andrew is killed by a shell in France; Mr. Carmichael publishes a collection of poetry “that spring” (134). Time no longer has any meaning in the world outside of the beach house; readers understand that World War I occurs somewhere distant, but the house itself is not touched by the war. While the events described above are presented in two or three sentence pieces, much of “Time Passes” describes the deteriorating condition of the house. While Mrs. McNab attempts the upkeep of the house at first, after several seasons of missing the Ramsays, she chooses to let the house be. Eventually, she hears a rumor that the Ramsays are returning to the house (ten years later), so she assembles a group of women to clean and fix the entire house. They finish just as Lily arrives. “The Lighthouse:” The description of time returns back to the pace of “The Window” as everything slows down. Lily finds herself eating breakfast in the morning and readers sense that this scene is meant to directly follow the dinner at the end of “The Window,” thereby ignoring the ten-year interval. Mr. Ramsay declares that he will be traveling to the lighthouse with James and Cam (one of his daughters) that day. After a series of setbacks, the three Ramsays eventually set off across the bay and Lily decides to return to the painting she had abandoned ten years prior. While reluctant and even scornful, James and Cam eventually feel some sympathy for their father. At one point, Mr. Ramsay even praises James on his sailing skills, and although James appreciates the comment, he becomes scornful yet again. Just as the Ramsays arrive at the lighthouse, Lily (across the bay) finishes her painting with a stroke and sets down her brush. While the preceding paragraphs provide descriptions of the various actions of the novel, it is important to note that much of the novel follows the thoughts of the various characters, which often do not correlate with the specific actions. Woolf sought to create a new style for the novel, which she was able to achieve by using the stream of consciousness method: the viewpoints readily shift from one character to another and much of the novel follows the thoughts of the various characters. Char ac t e rAnal ys i s : Mrs. Ramsay: The beautiful Mrs. Ramsey pursues her domestic ideals by hosting her guests in the Ramsay house on the beach. She is proud of her hosting abilities as well as her ability to match people. She attempts, unsuccessfully, to convince Lily to marry, however succeeds in uniting Paul and Minta. Mrs. Ramsay is aware of her husband’s need for support and placates him when possible. Although she dies suddenly at the beginning of “Time Passes”, Mrs. Ramsay’s essence and spirit remain integral to the novel. Mr. Ramsay: The distant—and occasionally cold—Mr. Ramsay is a famous philosopher. He spends much of his time reading and contemplating the issues that make up the world (as expressed by his alphabet). He loves Mrs. Ramsay dearly, however, is incapable of showing his love for his children, specifically James. His selfish nature removes him from much of the action, and few characters are able to actually connect to him.

Lily Briscoe: A painter who also spends her summers with the Ramsays, Lily is surprisingly as insecure about her work as is Mr. Ramsay about his. She begins a painting of Mrs. Ramsay, but has trouble finishing it until the very end of the novel. Lily refuses to marry, opposing Mrs. Ramsay’s wishes. James Ramsay: The youngest son, James constantly seeks his mother’s attention and develops an Oedipus complex (as per Freud’s descriptions). He truly hates his father for always ignoring him and his siblings, and wishes to kill him. James repeatedly looks forward to visiting the lighthouse across the bay, however, is only able to achieve his goal ten years later with his father and sister Cam. Cam Ramsay: Cam is one of the Ramsays’ daughters and accompanies her father and James to the lighthouse in the final section of the novel. Andrew Ramsay: The oldest Ramsay son, Andrew is an intelligent young man (his mother wants him to become a mathematician), however, he is killed by a shell in France during World War I in “Time Passes.” Prue Ramsay: The oldest Ramsay daughter, Prue is one of her mother’s joys. She marries once her mother dies and later she dies in childbirth. Augustus Carmichael: One of the guests, Mr. Carmichael is a poet who is interested in reading poetry and spending time alone. He reads Virgil and publishes his own collection of poems after the war. He returns, along with Lily, to the beach house after the war. Paul Rayley: Another guests of the Ramsays, Paul listens to Mrs. Ramsays instructions in proposing to and marrying Minta Doyle. Minta Doyle: Minta, another guest on the island, marries Paul. Charles Tansley: A young pupil of Mr. Ramsay, Charels Tansley shares the same arrogant and uptight nature that Mr. Ramsay possesses. He insults others quite often, especially Lily and her artwork. William Bankes: Mr. Bankes is a yet another guest on the island and is a good friend of Lily’s. Mrs. Ramsay hopes that he would marry the young lady, however, they never do. Mrs. McNab: The elderly housekeeper for the Ramsays, Mrs. McNab cleans and repairs the house when the Ramsays return after a ten-year interval. Nancy, Rose, Roger, Jasper Ramsay: The other children of the Ramsays; they do not play major roles in the novel.

Notes of comparison to other texts: 1. Representations of Consciousness - There is no anchoring in Woolf that brings us back to a "secure reality"; there is no reality separate from how we see it. This is different than reality in Cervantes Don Quixote where what a character does and what they say can suddenly be at odds with one another. - People doubt their consciousness in Lighthouse where they do not in Quixote - In Woolf there is equal attention given to the consciousness of many...an aesthetic of patterning and form that simply has to do with consciousness. As opposed to Austen where consciousness is given a clear belonging i.e. social/individual/couple. - In Woolf people are receptive of other people's consciousness. This ties into repression. When characters are conscious of the minds of other characters they tend to

repress thought. This kind of awareness has a connection to Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment where his main character's mind can not even name what is really going on. 2. War -In Virgil's depiction of war throughout the Aeneid, their is a clear focus on the collective ability and strength of a people, the belief in a nation. In Woolf's depiction of WWI, the focus is clearly on the experience of the Individual.

Themes: 1. The connection between war and poetryWar produces in us a need for poetry. (Helen is weaving.) Over time moving from concerns of the collective to the concerns of the individual. 2. The Idea of a Quest NovelThis text is concerned with its characters experience of the world. This is why essentially all fail a successful Quest except for Lily. Lily is successful because she is an artist and art is not about making a finished project it is about experiencing something and framing it though your own experience and through your own expression. Perception of the world also plays a role in the quest novel. The window - is about perception and looking. 3. Perceptual projects and PreservationThe philosophical, artistic and domestic perceptual spheres of Mr. Ramsey, Lily and Mrs. Ramsey respectively lend a certain theme to the story. Each of the three characters share a common connection having to do with the preservation of their life's purpose and each share a brush with immortality. Although Mr. Ramsey and Lily aspire to achieve immortality through their work, Mrs. Ramsey's life is stagnant and repetitive...this will ultimately doom her in the eyes of the novel.

Passage Analysis—perceptions of the world “So now she always saw, when she thought of Mr. Ramsay’s work, a scrubbed kitchen table. It lodged now in the fork of a pear tree, for they had reached the orchard. And with a painful effort of concentration, she focused her mind, upon the silver-bossed bark of the tree, or upon its fish-shaped leaves, but upon a phantom kitchen table, one of those scrubbed board tables, grained and knotted, whose virtue seems to have been there, its four legs in the air. Naturally, if one’s days were passed in seeing of angular essences, this reducing of lovely evenings, with all their flamingo clouds and blue and silver to a white deal four-legged table (and it was a mark of the finest minds so to do), naturally one could not be judged like an ordinary person.” (p. 23) Mr. Ramsay is a philosopher, and this is the way he views the world. He is concerned about being an ordinary person, and desires immortality. He thinks abstractly.

“But the picture was not of them, she said… She could not show him what she wished to make of it, could not see it even herself, without a brush in her hand. She took up once more her old painting position with the dim eyes and the absent-minded manner, subduing all her impressions as a woman to something more general; becoming once more under the power of that vision which she had seen clearly once and must now grope for among hedges and houses and mothers and children—her picture. It was a question, she remembered, how to connect this mass on the right hand with that on the left…” (5253) Lily is a visual artist. She has an ambition towards immortality, but doesn’t want it. She is a concrete person in terms of her thinking and focus on details, but her artwork is abstract. She is interested in the formal unity of things. “…what had she done with it, Mrs. Ramsay wondered, for Rose’s arrangement of the grapes and pears, of the horny pink-lined shell, of the bananas, made her think of a trophy fetched from the bottom for the sea, of Neptune’s banquet, of the bunch that hangs with vine leaves over the shoulder of Bacchus (in some picture), among the leopard skins and the torches lolloping red and gold…That was his way of looking, different from hers. But looking together united them.” (96-97) Mrs. Ramsay’s perception of the world is rooted in the domestic sphere. She is focused on permanence. This is shown through her desire to keep her children young, and she does not want them to grow up. Her immortality is rooted through stasis, and the repetition of life through the generations.

Passage Analysis—bracketed sentences in Time Passes [Here, Mr. Carmichael, who was reading Virgil, blew out his candle. It was midnight.] (127) [Mr. Carmichael brought out a volume of poems that spring, which had an unexpected success. The war, people said, had revived their interest in poetry.] (134) These two sentences are the first and last bracketed sections. The inclusion of Virgil in the first bracketed sentence is reminiscent of war with a national sentiment, and the focus is away from the individual. This is much like countries before WWI. After WWI, the sentiment changes because war produces a need for poetry to console and unite people. The poems of WWI focus on individual suffering, and personal pain. [Mr. Ramsay, stumbling along a passage one dark morning stretched his arms out, but Mrs. Ramsay having died rather suddenly the night before, his arms, though stretched out, remained empty.](128) This sentence, which describes Mrs. Ramsay’s death, has Mr. Ramsay as the subject. One reason for this is because death is the experience of the living, and not the dead. [Prue Ramsay, leaning on her father’s arm, was given in marriage. What, people said could have been more fitting? And, they added, how beautiful she looked!] (131)

[Prue Ramsay died that summer in some illness connected with childbirth, which was indeed a tragedy, people said, everything, they said had promised so well.](132) This sentence conveys a sense of community judgment. [A shell exploded. Twenty or thirty young men were blown up in France, among them Andrew Ramsay, whose death, mercifully, was instantaneous.](133) Andrew Ramsay’s death is very anonymous. It is described as a group, and no one really knows who the group is. The “shell” is the grammatical agent, and Andrew Ramsay is the subject. The shell is a weapon without an agent. This indicates the purposelessness, and the anonymous quality of his death. It is very different from other cases in which death in battle is described, i.e. the Iliad. In the Iliad, most often the agent of death is very clear. The deaths of Prue and Andrew undo Mrs. Ramsay because they children are dying young, and without reason. These bracketed sections are very important to the chapter Time Passes, and they contain the most important aspects of the story. They are bracketed because certain events are so traumatic that they cannot get incorporated in the narrative. In this section, the house is like the kitchen table when we are not there. The house is a symbol of the family because as the family breaks down, so does the house as it falls into disrepair....